$3 million grant to help fight eye viruses, blindness

High-tech equipment to treat patients with eye deterioration and research into using stem cells to prevent or cure blindness will be funded by the recent $3 million grant that the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation gave to UC Irvine's Gavin Herbert Eye Institute.

Dr. Roger Steinert, a professor, chairman of the ophthalmology department and director of the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, said the grant will provide two elements: equipment needed to do procedures related to retinal degeneration and the creation of postdoctoral training fellowships for new scientists in the field of retinal degeneration.

One million dollars of the grant will fund equipment required to perform blindness-prevention procedures such as measuring a faint electrical signal given out when light hits the retina, a light-sensitive layer of tissue that lines the back of the eye.

By recording the signal, scientists can track abnormal patterns of the retina and quantify the impact of treatment on the disease.

Another instrument used to prevent blindness diseases is imaging technology, or optical coherence tomography, used to provide a high magnification view and take cross-sectional information from the retina, Steinert said.

These imaging devices "take a slice through the retina to look at each of the elements," or layers of tissue.

Transplanting stem cells and the microscope device needed to perform the procedure – inserting stem cells into the eye either in front or behind the retina under sterile conditions – will also be funded by the Beckman Foundation grant.

Two things are currently believed to have the ability to prevent eye disease because of stem cell transplantation, Steinert said.

One finding is that by transplanting stem cells into the eye, the stem cells will regenerate function in the retina that has died off due to retinal degeneration caused by disease.

A newer finding is that reproduction of stem cells, once inserted into the eye will reserve cells and slow down or prevent stem cell deterioration.

The remaining $2 million from the Beckman Foundation will go toward the postdoctoral training program. The fellows will have the opportunity to partake in new developments and research such as treatment for herpes of the eye, a viral disease that causes cold sores.

Although there is no vaccine for herpes of the eye, the Gavin Herbert Eye Institute has a group of "very talented researchers who are going pretty far down the road on developing an effective vaccine against it," Steinert said.